The Motorola Droid 3, or XT883, or Milestone, or whatever else you’d like to call it, has finally been launched in China, which means its only a matter of time before this third-gen Droid hits U.S. shelves.

For right now, we’re guesstimating a July 7 release from Verizon based on claims from Droid-Life sources, but we can’t say for sure until we get official word.

As far as specs are concerned, most of what we already reported based on leaked photos and details has remained true. The newest Droid is thinner and faster than its predecessors, with a dual-core OMAP 4430 processor under the hood, Android 2.3 Gingerbread running the show and Motorola’s Blur UI on top. Personally, I think if you’re going to lay anything over stock Android it should be HTC’s Sense, but I know a number of hard-core Blur fans who say that Sense is overwhelming comparatively. So, to each his own, I guess.

Other specs include an 8-megapixel rear shooter and an unspecified front-facing camera for video chat, a newly added number row along the top of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard (goodbye, alt), and a 4-inch qHD display. Unfortunately, that PenTile screen could be the biggest draw back for the phone, along with its skimpy offering of just 512MB of RAM. What’s worse, the Droid 3 won’t be enjoying Verizon’s super fast 4G LTE network.

It’s likely that those cons may hurt the Droid 3 when placed against some of the forthcoming big guns like the Samsung Galaxy S II or the HTC Sensation 4G, but time shall tell.

[via Droid-Life]